Young Men Who Carried Trump To Victory Are Mad. Vance Is Trying To Win Them Back.

Of all the voters the GOP needs to coax to the polls in November, young men are among the most crucial.

They swung sharply toward President Donald Trump in 2024, but like other parts of the president’s coalition, some have since grown frustrated over the war and the cost of living.

But the Trump administration and its allies also see them as among the most persuadable — a group whose political and cultural instincts remain broadly aligned with MAGA.

Enter JD Vance.

The vice president has in the run-up to the midterms touted the Trump administration’s work to combat “institutionalized anti-white, anti-male discrimination in this country,” talked UFC with Joe Rogan and invoked the late Charlie Kirk as an example of a man who didn’t retreat from politics even when he disagreed with the administration on Iran.

“There’s no question that JD is the most effective messenger to young voters,” said MAGA podcaster Jack Posobiec, who recently talked to Vance about the frustrations of young men in an interview on Air Force Two. “This is us saying, no, we get it. We don’t like the system either. However, maybe don’t burn down the country. Because when we burn down the country, the problem is we still live in the country. It’s not a good idea to set fire to the house you live in.”

Whether Vance is effective in getting his message across could be the difference, administration allies believe, in Republicans winning close Senate races in states like Alaska and Texas, which are among the youngest states in the nation. And while Vance has repeatedly said he is focused on 2026, he’s also laying the groundwork for a possible presidential run where he’ll need support from young men — including the broader subset of Gen Z men, who are currently 14 to 29 years old — to build a winning coalition.

Convincing this cohort won’t be easy, and even administration allies are skeptical Vance can stanch the bleeding. They fear that young men may be a lost cause in 2026 — their anger with the Iran war a proxy for overall frustrations that the country has long focused too much on foreign policy and not enough on improving their lives at home.

One person close to the White House, granted anonymity to express skepticism, said they didn’t think the vice president would be successful given the current political climate, high gasoline prices and a war that seemingly has no end in sight.

“But he should still try, right?” the person said. “Because it’s the right thing to do, and it’s also just good for him, bigger picture, if he's making good arguments and raising his profile.”

Vance’s allies say the first millennial vice president is best positioned to reach Gen Z, but it will be hard because it’s a cohort that is nihilistic about politics.

“The next generation is generally turned off to politicians and politics. JD has the burden of speaking to them as both their age and also potentially their next president,” Rachel Bovard, vice president of programs at the Conservative Partnership Institute and a longtime Vance ally, said in a text. “No pressure on him, lol.”

An RNC official, granted anonymity to share internal strategy, said Republicans believe there are more young men in its turnout groups than Democrats’, including in Michigan, Ohio, Iowa and Alaska. The party’s data also shows that young men who are persuadable voters lean more Republican than Democrat, the official added, making them key targets for positive messaging.

"As a millennial and young father, Vice President Vance is the perfect messenger for young men who feel they've been left behind and want to achieve the American Dream,” Natalie Baldassarre, RNC national press secretary, said in a statement.

The vice president’s office declined to comment.

Trump won 18- to 24-year-old men by 3 points in 2024, according to CNN exit polling, but a recent Cygnal poll shows Trump’s net favorability rating with the group at minus 17.

“[Trump] is reviled now by Gen Z, including Gen Z men, and that was absolutely not the case in ‘24,” the person close to the White House said.

Vance is also underwater but performing better than Trump. His net favorability is minus 10, which gives some a reason to hope he can make inroads with young men.

“It was not an ideological shift, but a shift based upon personal practical needs and a promise of improving their financial security,” said John Della Volpe, a pollster who specializes in Gen Z voters, said of the young men who voted for Trump in ‘24. “It's pretty clear that they were rented by the Republican Party and not owned by them and up for grabs.”

Vance on podcasts and the stump says young men are right to feel that the system is “rigged,” amplifying online complaints. He has responded repeatedly by calling them to action rather than disengaging.

“Young people, in general, are frustrated and yes sometimes that comes in the form of complaining loudly online, but they’re so hungry for the truth, and for hard truths too,” said Andrew Kolvet, spokesperson for Turning Point USA and a longtime ally of the vice president. “JD has a way of doing it without speaking down to them or saying that what they’re feeling isn’t real, but calling them higher.”

Asked about Vance’s role in communicating to young men, White House spokesperson Davis Ingle said in a statement that the president is “the unequivocal leader, best messenger, and unmatched motivator for the Republican Party.”

Young men, including many popular conservative podcasters, have been particularly incensed with the administration since the start of the Iran war. Andrew Schulz, one of the co-hosts of “Flagrant,” pilloried Trump on his podcast earlier this year for spending “billions of dollars on a war in a country I can’t even point out on a map” while “I can’t afford to pay for college. I can’t buy a home. I can’t pay for health insurance.”

Vance, who opposed starting the war with Iran but has supported the president since, was the administration’s most enthusiastic surrogate for ending it in April, when he attempted to broker a ceasefire in Pakistan.

At the midterm convention in September, Vance spoke of how Kirk, his late friend, also didn’t like war but would never give up on politics.

“Young men … I want to speak directly to that group because I think Charlie is a great example of how to disagree, but still participate in the work of saving this country,” Vance said. “What I'm asking you to do is do what Charlie did. Do not throw the baby out with the bath water. Don't give the country over to a bunch of crazy people because you happen to disagree with us on a policy issue here or there.”

Vance’s comments also come amid Republican fears that young men are abandoning the populist right for the populist left, entranced by the economic promises of democratic socialism.

In his interview with Posobiec, the vice president again waded into a debate that roiled conservatives this summer over the unaffordability of $20 burritos — lambasting Republicans who dismiss young people’s concerns about affordability — and touted the Trump administration’s work to combat diversity, equity and inclusion policies that he said had long “institutionalized anti-white, anti-male discrimination in this country.”

He’s also taken to the campaign trail to talk about policies the administration has implemented to reshore manufacturing, increase housing affordability and ease taxes on workers.

“I'm not asking anybody to agree on every single policy of the administration,” Vance said at the convention. “What I am asking you to do is to recognize the contrast with the radicals and recognize the achievements of the last 18 months. We have done a lot, my friends, and we can do a lot more if we fight together.”

But not all Republicans are convinced Vance is the right messenger for the cohort.

“I don’t think there’s any kind of consensus” that Vance is the right person to talk to young men, said a former Trump campaign official. “This is a really tough environment, probably the worst since 2006 for Republicans ... and so this is an all hands on deck moment.”

One conservative commentator, granted anonymity to speak candidly, pointed to a poll showing Secretary of State Marco Rubio performing 9 points better than Vance with men under 30. Rubio, however, is not on the campaign trail heading into the midterms, instead focusing on foreign policy.

“Unleash Vance on Theo Von to get young men to vote Republican’ is masturbatory nonsense for the terminally online,” the person said. “It’s fine if someone wants to argue that Vance is the best option available, considering that Nickelback wasn’t available. But Vance’s entire approach seems to be to concede that Trump’s foreign policy is bad and unpopular, but populism is great, vote for us!”